Hell's Detective: A Mystery

by Michael Logan

Overview

Kat Murphy is a private detective tortured by demons. Real ones. She is serving a death sentence in Lost Angeles, the dark and depraved city in Hell where a beast known as a Torment forces her to relive, night after night, the moment she killed her lover and put a bullet in her own skull.

Kat longs to make amends for her sins. So when the city's Chief Administrator hires her to retrieve a stolen box with a mysterious power, offering to call off her Torment in return, she gets the chance to do just that.

But if Kat has learned one thing, it's that every case has a wrinkle. As she trawls drug dens, casinos, and fighting pits in search of the thief, she discovers that both box and city contain secrets darker than she could ever have imagined. And with time running out, Kat must choose between her own desire for peace and the fate of the world above in Hell's Detective, the electrifying new mystery from award-winning author Michael Logan.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683311737
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	06/13/2017
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	954 KB

About the Author

Michael Logan is an award-winning Scottish writer. His debut novel, Apocalypse Cow, won the Terry Pratchett First Novel Prize, and he as since published the sequel, World War Moo, in addition to an unrelated standalone novel, Wannabes, and several works of short fiction which have appeared in publications such as The Telegraph, Chapman, and Underground Voices.During his time as a foreign correspondent, Logan lived in Scotland, France, Bosnia, Hungary, Switzerland and Kenya, and he has also reported from many other countries, including South Sudan, Somalia, South Africa, and other places that don’t begin with an ’S’. He currently lives in Rome, Italy, and is married with three young children. He likes books, fencing, guitars and cheese.

Editorial Reviews

04/03/2017
Logan (World War Moo) does justice to his offbeat concept—that even in hell the damned need the services of a hard-bitten PI—in this entertaining mystery. Gumshoe Kat Murphy committed suicide in Los Angeles in 1978 after accidentally gunning down her lover. She now exists in Lost Angeles, “that stinking pit masquerading as a city,” where she’s routinely tormented by memories of her tragic mistake. At a bar, Kat meets the mysterious Laureen Andrews, the chief administrator of Lost Angeles, who offers to stop her nightly sufferings if she succeeds in recovering a “significant item.” Kat resists at first, but she comes around and learns that the item in question is an “Earth-shaped box carved out of mahogany” stolen from Laureen’s personal safe. Kat quickly realizes that Laureen is hoping to keep the loss a secret from her boss, Satan himself. Logan has a knack for crafting lines that will gratify noir fans (“She had curly black hair and cheekbones so sharp that a man could kiss her and shave at the same time”). (June)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Hell’s Detective:
"More fun than a barrel of flying monkeys. A fiendishly clever mash-up of noir and horror with a soupçon of hard-boiled humor. Set in a superbly realized corner of hell known as Lost Angeles, Logan has delivered a helluva great read."
—Eric Van Lustbader, New York Times bestselling author of Any Minute Now

"I took Hell’s Detective down to the beach. It was a perfect splash of shade on a sunny day. Michael Logan has created a sinfully good noir mystery. Think Raymond Chandler meets Stephen King. Highly recommended!"
—Rebecca Cantrell, New York Times bestselling author

"[An] entertaining mystery...Logan has a knack for crating lines that will gratify noir fans."
—Publishers Weekly

"Logan creates a world of the dead rich with details."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Logan’s vision of hell is violent, gritty, and filled with evil. Incorporated into an action-packed mystery, this extreme universe should delight fans of Simon R. Green or Jim Butcher’s ’Dresden Files.’"
—Library Journal

“Logan takes readers on a dark-comedy tour of a Hell beyond our wildest dreams with this unpredictable detective novel.”
—Booklist

“This is a most entertaining novel with a definitely unique plot...It’s an unusual and imaginative story with some creative viewpoints about guilt, punishment, and redemption, and some mythological references thrown in for good measure...Hell’s Detective is an enjoyable story with a surprisingly happy ending for a narrative set in hell. Kudos to author Logan for an inventive approach to an age-old subject.”
—New York Journal of Books

“Intriguing, action-packed.”
—Mystery Scene Magazine

“This is a fun read and is well written and put together well. A mystery that is a little naughty on the side...Regardless if you are a die-hard horror fan or a fantasy fan you will love this book...If you’re looking for a new kind of mystery, check out award-winning author Michael Logan.”
—Night Owl Reviews

“A helluva romp...an action-packed ripsnorter pounded out in big pulpy strokes that makes me hope the author visits our genre again.”
—The Thrilling Detective

From the Publisher

04/01/2017
Private detective Kat Murphy is in Hell, Lost Angeles. Every night, the residents are visited by a Torment and forced to relive their sins; in Kat's case, she shot her lover, and then killed herself. Every day, Kat goes to her favorite dive bar to drink herself into oblivion, which is where Laureen Andrews, the chief administrator of Lost Angeles, finds her. Someone stole an invaluable box from Laureen, and she offers Kat a bargain. Find that box, and Kat won't be visited by her Torment anymore. This means one more case for Kat that will lead her to the gambling dens, bars, and hangouts of the sinners of Lost Angeles. The danger and violence only intensifies, as Kat's search could change the fate of the world. VERDICT Logan's (Apocalypse Cow) vision of hell is violent, gritty, and filled with evil. Incorporated into an action-packed mystery, this extreme universe should delight fans of Simon R. Green or Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files."—LH

Library Journal

2017-03-21
A detective trapped in purgatory has a chance to win freedom from her past.Stuck in the world of Lost Angeles, the afterlife for those who were none too good in their original lives, Kat Murphy waits out her days at Benny's, a dive bar filled with the closest thing purgatory has to friends. In her former life, Kat was a quick-thinking detective known for her toughness and wit. Those qualities drew fellow detective Danny Ainsworth to Kat but ultimately led to the events that ended both their lives and brought Kat to her indefinite stay in Lost Angeles. When newcomer Franklin Johnson shows up at Benny's, Kat's in no mood to deal with the wannabe detective, though she can't help telling him a few of the tricks of the place—like the news that in the afterlife, you can't die. The same day, Laureen Andrews, one of the city's chief administrators, shows up trying to talk with Kat about her work. Kat's not quite sure what she's done to make herself suddenly so popular or how she can make it stop. But Laureen's got an offer Kat can't refuse: if Kat can help find a mysterious object that seems to have been stolen from Laureen, Laureen will call off the supernatural Torments that haunt Kat's nights. Now Kat has to figure out if it's worth it to engage in the world around her or if she's just another permanent resident of Lost Angeles who's given up. Logan (Wannabes, 2016, etc.) creates a world of the dead rich with details that range from the mundane to the sublimely vicious, suggesting a skill for humor that supersedes his mystery abilities.

Kirkus Reviews